u/BleedingEdgeMonotone

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After quite a bit of work and looking to beat the clock on the weather, THE WRONG SIDE OF HEAVEN is finally finished. It is a hybrid StryfeX and LongShot CS-6, with a snazzy paintjob.

For the fully fledged writeup, including many photos of in-progress builds, please visit here. You may need to translate it as its posted to a non-english blog, Hatena Blog.

The blasters used were a StryfeX, and a blue LongShot CS-6. (Yeah some of you probably are like, oh you could have saved it! You chopped up a perfectly good original blue LongShot!? You should've given it to m- Yes. And it works flawlessly.)

When I started, I was initially suggested by an acquaintance in the community, KatsBlasterMods, to build a StryShot as it's fairly easy and they look cool. (He helped me out quite a bit with suggestions and questions, so thank you a ton, it means a lot!)

I wanted to try something else out - of course, I own regular modded and unmodded Stryfes. Instead, I wanted to use a StryfeX in an integration, as I don't think I've ever seen that done here.

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I first drafted up an image in CSP to get a general appearance and color scheme, and went from there. I made my shell cuts with a hacksaw, and filed everything smooth. Next I did multiple rounds of test-fitting - these were rather difficult due to the atypical shape of the StryfeX in comparison to a normal Stryfe.

Once that was done, it was time to fuse the shells. I started with rubber cement and hot glue for an initial bond to make the pieces stick together, then used Smooth-On "SmoothCast" 65D for the actual fusion. Afterwards I used PlasticWeld Epoxy Putty to fill in gaps and make the shells smoothly join.

Next, I sanded everything, and this is where I made a bit of a mistake. I did not use a respirator this time because I was lazy, and I did pay the price. Whole afternoon I was coughing and even today I still cough a bit. Please don't do this, go get the mask, it's worth the hassle, LOL.

Then I let everything cure for 2 nights, then washed off the shell gently with soap and water to remove the leftover dust so it wouldn't interfere.

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For painting I chose red Rustoleum 2X for the base coat, Grey and Black acrylic paints for the detailing, and a matte Rustoleum clear coat spray can.

When it was done, I applied the paint, let it sit, then put on the clear coat and reassembled thusly. I was scared at first that the blaster would just fall apart in my hands, so I tested the bond strength and I can say, the actual BLASTER SHELL would likely snap before the epoxy/SmoothCast bond would. So, nice.

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This is my first full-fledged integration and I couldn't be prouder with how it turned out. But what are YOUR thoughts? Tell me what you think, what I could improve, what I should know next time going into a project like this?

This is an overview of SLEEPING SUN, my most recent modification of my Nexus Pro X2.